Nearly two feet fall in Milford

Tuesday

At 3:30 p.m., Milford had 20 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service, the most in the state at the time. Just after nightfall, Milford had accumulated 22 inches.

Franklin had 23 inches as of 7 p.m., with Bellingham at 20.2, Uxbridge at 19 and Mendon at 18.

The snow totals brought power outages.

In Milford, nearly 2,000 National Grid customers lost power around 12:50 p.m. Tuesday, according to the company's outage map. Milford police dispatcher Scott Bruno said a tree near Purchase Street and Vicki Lane took down two utility poles and caused the outage. Crews were on scene by 3 p.m., with expected power restoration for the 1,907 customers set for 9 p.m., the National Grid website said.

A separate outage was reported around 1:14 p.m. that affected 2,927 customers in Bellingham, Franklin and Blackstone. Electricity was scheduled to be restored around 9:15 p.m. Medway reported "major power outages" just after 7 p.m.

Most businesses along Milford's Main Street were shuttered Tuesday, although Johnny Jacks was open at 11 a.m. with three hungry customers: plow truck drivers.

Kevin LeBlanc, of Milford's Department of Public Works, finished up an omelette on a brief break from the road.

"Got to take advantage," he said. "Other places might not be open later on."

LeBlanc was in the truck since 1 a.m. The storm really picked up around 3 a.m. and visibility has been terrible since, he said.

He still had a long day ahead of him.

"We'll be here all day and all night until (Wednesday)," LeBlanc said. "I'm hoping we go home tomorrow."

As the storm carried on, walking Main Street was treacherous. Snow quickly piled up on sidewalks and wind gusts carried the strength to push pedestrians around.

Still, a few people made the regular rounds. Dunkin' Donuts was among the few businesses open that saw customers come and go.

"I love the winter ... Let it snow," one customer said.

Some, including Candace Puzin, stocked up on snacks and hot chocolate at 7-Eleven.

Puzin who had just finished shoveling, took a quick walk up to the store before planning to spend the day indoors with family and friends playing board games.

"(It's) the only time I can force them to play," she said with a laugh.

The Massachusetts State Police were busy. They went to several tractor-trailer jackknifes and rollovers on the Massachusetts Turnpike, as well as on Interstate 495 and Interstate 290.

A large box truck rolled over on the Mass. Pike in Natick near Rte. 30, resulting in the road temporarily being closed.

Because of the road conditions, the Pike’s speed limit was dropped from its normal 65 mph to 20 mph.

National Weather Service meteorologist Alan Dunham said it’s not unusual to get caught in a weather pattern that has brought three nor’easters in 12 days.

“It’s just the way the upper weather pattern was,” said Dunham. “Sometimes we get a recurring pattern in the summer, which isn’t a bad thing. In the winter, sometimes we get recurring pattern, and we end up having three nor’easters in 12 days, which is a bad thing.”

Good news, though. Dunham said things look clear, weather-wise, in the immediate future.

“We’re looking good through the weekend,” he said. “Beyond that, we have to wait to see what Mother Nature has planned for us.”

The department handled a few calls for downed trees and telephone wires, but aside from that things were pretty quiet, he said.

“I'm going to knock on wood, but it's been fairly uneventful," he said.

Sgt. Brian Johnson with the Franklin police said that so far Franklin has been quiet and people seem to be heeding the governor’s warning to stay off the road. He said that in addition to the outages, there were two minor car crashes this morning but the roads are clear decently clear as of 11 a.m.

“Stay off the roads and let the DPW do their work,” he said. “I’ve been looking out the window at the station here and it doesn’t look pretty.”

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